Antonio Nuño

Why We Chose Him: 

Ed Bastian has been an active participant in our Social Capital section, helping us spotlight a wide range of experiences that put Social Capital in action. He has nominated Antonio Nuño, co-founder and CEO of Someone Somewhere to share the Social Capital accolade.

“Someone Somewhere is a lifestyle brand that provides employment to artisans in Mexico’s poorest villages,” Ed says. He notes that Antonio has been named one of Fast Company’s most creative people for his company’s efforts to created elevated products while paying local artisans a fair wage. His own belief in the company is evidenced in the fact that Someone Somewhere can be seen on board Delta flights via the airline’s latest amenity kits.

Social Capital is, ultimately, about people, and people, Antonio says, “are the reason why we started Someone Somewhere.” Volunteer trips in high school opened his and his friends’ eyes as they worked in different indigenous communities and became very close with a lot of families. “We realized that most women in these communities were artisans who did amazing things with their hands, but that they were really struggling to live from this work,” he says. “The problem was clear: their designs, materials and sales channels didn't match with what the world was demanding. One in every 25 people in the world is a struggling artisan (it's the second largest source of employment in LATAM, Africa and Asia), so we realized that if we could build a brand that connected their talents with the needs of global corporations and consumers, the impact could be massive.”

One partnership they’ve built toward that goal is with Delta Air Lines. Since February of this year, Someone Somewhere has been making the amenity kits for all their Delta One passengers (and now also for all Delta Premium Select Passengers). It's a partnership that is providing better opportunities for more than 1,500 people in vulnerable communities -- and it is stopping more than 150 tons of textile waste from reaching the landfills, as the handcrafts are made with repurposed materials. 

“We believe that poverty and climate change are the two biggest problems we are facing as a society, so we have worked so hard to build a model that puts people and the planet first,” Antonio says, emphasizing the need for large corporations and social enterprise organizations to work together to achieve these ambitious goals on time. 

“Partnerships like the one we have with Delta Air Lines are allowing us to achieve two metrics that we value way more than sales and profits: We are currently weaving enough recycled threads to circle the Earth two times every single day, and in the last 12 months we've generated more than 500,000 hours of work for indigenous artisans” Antonio says. “It's very easy to wake up motivated in the morning when every minute you spend working translates to so many minutes of work for others.”

We at Social Capital appreciate that partnership as well, and for bringing this incredible company to our attention.